This was the comment made by NSW Minister for Resources and Energy Chris Hartcher on a whirlwind trip to the Mid-Western region on Wednesday.
Mr Hartcher spoke to the Mudgee Guardian after a flight from Lightning Ridge where he had met Member for Barwon Kevin Humphries.
He met Member for Orange Andrew Gee at the Mudgee Airport before touring the Ulan mine site.
Asked about Mudgee’s rapid growth as an energy “hub”, Mr Hartcher said the State Government had many considerations and was working towards the right policy for land use across NSW.
“We see a great future for this area both agriculturally and through minerals,” he said.
“It [Mudgee] started off as a pastoral area, it’s developed a vineyard industry, it’s now developed a mining industry and it’s now developing an energy resource industry.
“There’s enormous potential for properly planned growth and the government, through our local MPs, is determined that growth will be planned, it will be balanced, and that it will be done in conjunction with concerns of the community.”
Mr Hartcher said he intended to work with Mr Gee to ensure there was mining expansion, but not at the expense of farming and not at the expense of water.
He said the government’s strategic land use study was under way in consultation with a number of stakeholders.
“It contains a reference group which includes NSW Farmers Association, the NSW Minerals Council, the Total Environment Centre, the Nature Conservation Council, Local Government Association, and the CFMEU,” Mr Hartcher said.
“The policies they take forward I propose that we would take forward to our local members including Andrew, Kevin Humphries and John Williams further west.
“We want to go through every level and want to make sure the community is represented by its members.”
Mr Hartcher reminded nearly two-thirds of the cabinet are from regional NSW and the government would work with them to make sure development is done in conjunction with local communities.
“We’re not going to let anything happen until all the safeguards are in place,” he said.
“There will be no further exploration licences granted in NSW without them going out for public comment.”
Mr Gee said he believed the government had acknowledged concerns brought to him before, during and after the election.
“Under the previous government these exploration licences were handed out like confetti and no one knew really what they were doing, communities were being divided, neighbours were being played off against neighbour and it was all very unproductive so I think we’ve adopted the right approach,” he said.
“He’s [Mr Hartcher] taken the time to find out what’s actually going on with mining at the literal “coal face” of energy production in NSW because it is going to be a big issue which affects this area.”
Source: Mudgee Guardian 29 Jul 2011
3 comments:
The visit is timely and as expected. The on-site visit and inspection will help them get to know the situation of the place and that will serve as a decision factor.
yeah - we've seen how that helped the decision: a draft land use strategy that still does not protect prime agricultural land, still alllows the minister to override everything and also allows the biggest users to be exempt from aquifer intererence licences! so how mich DID he learn?
Thank you so much for your generous sharing of such nice post. I am quite interested in your information and making such researches on such subject. I am looking forward to get more useful knowledge and news from your article before long.
Post a Comment